englishoasis

Sunday, 28 June 2009

I just discovered this wonderful site to share with all of you. If you are looking for a dictionary with a difference, then this is the place to go. You can upload a video on your favourite word and share it with others. This will appeal to visual learners. Go to wordia.com

Open Day, 27 June 2009

The school's Open Day was held last Saturday. Judging by the turnout, it was a huge success. I was at the school gate with a few prefects to welcome the parents. Someone was surprised to find me located there (the only teacher with the prefects). Well, I thought she was the one who put me in AJK Sambutan. Funny this! Anyway, nervous giggles from the girls could be heard as they whizzed their parents to the classes to have an audience with their form teachers- a day of reckoning you bet! I met En Zainal, who is now a headmaster in a school in Kluang. I didn't realise that I was teaching his daughter in 4S1. Anyway, he wasn't too happy with his daughter's performance. Back in the common room, a Form 3 girl cried dark tears when her sister came to see a teacher!! We later realised she had her mascara on!!! And her sister came to the common room only to find out her younger sister hadn't been attending the Hikmah classes! Well, better to know now than never.

MGCJ Module Building Meeting, PKG Kluang, 25 June 09

Today, I chaired the state level meeting of PMR and SPM module-building session for Majlis Guru Cemerlang Johor 2009 roadshow in PKG Kluang. As a matter of fact I was in charge of the SPM English group but Suresh, the MGCJ secretary had asked me to brief the PMR module builders too. The meeting went well except for some frantic calls from teachers who did not receive the calling letter in time :) The SPM group agreed to deal with two areas namely, writing and listening/speaking where we intend to share best practices in the classroom. I personally think listening and speaking have been neglected in the English classroom for a long time. We had a great discussion on what should be included in the 6-hour course. For writing, we will look at controlled, semi-controlled (guided) and free-writing and for listening/speaking, we have decided to focus on practical pair work, group work and large class approaches. We will present our parts during the 2nd meeting on the 2nd July 2009 for team feedback and editing. My team consists of nine English excellent teachers: Adeline (Batu Pahat), Ramesh (Johor Bharu), Norziha (Pontian), Sheikh Fauzi (Mersing), Mrs Jacob (Segamat), Manymaran (Kulai), Hafiz (Kluang) and Renuka (Muar).